BR#1: A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testaments - Walter Dean and Christopher Myers

“Together with his younger son Christopher Myers’ strikingly original artwork – employing a different medium for each story – and his older son Chaplain, Captain. Michael Dean Myers’ insightful preface, this abundant family collaboration breathes fresh life into these timeless stories and is a gift to families of all faiths.”  With this quote acknowledging the genius of the novel A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testaments, Walter Dean and Christopher Myers, father and son of one another, exhibits the true meaning of love throughout the six monumental stories of the Bible in the novel.

In general, what can I say about this book? The novel's theme viewed how I received a different perspective of all six stories portrayed and I connected the six different stories with the meaning of love.  “And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah… (Judges 16:4) Where you live, I will live.  Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God… (Ruth 1:16)  Compared to the story of Ruth and Naomi, one of the stories in A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testaments, Samson and Delilah grew to love each other while Ruth and Naomi, daughter and mother-in-law of one another, already had love for each other, exemplifying why the quote from Ruth demonstrated the reaction of what one will do to their loved one.  As these stories completely differ in context, the main theme presented in both stories simply expresses love.  “…for because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son… (Genesis 22:16) …and when he seeth the blood against the lintel and on the two side post, the Lord will pass over the door and will not permit the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. (Exodus 12:23)  As of these two stories, Zillah and Lot, daughter and father of one another, and Aser and Gamiel, best friends of one another, display love within their stories.  In addition to the stories of Samson and Delilah with Ruth and Naomi, these two stories contrast because of the relationship between the characters, yet the stories all attach with the link of love.  This literature perfectly proves the discrepancies of each story and similarities of love.

Considerably, how does this novel exhilarate me?  The father and son’s style affected my reading of the novel because they illustrated the novel with modern day pictures, although the stories in the novel took place in the biblical era.  On page 18 of A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testaments, Christopher Myers, the illustrator of the novel, presented a picture of a woman trimming a man’s dreadlocks.  If one pictures Delilah cutting Samson’s hair, one might picture a Renaissance painting of a pleasant woman preparing to snip off a masculine man’s hair.  Since this novel was published in 2003, an extensive time before the biblical era, one will need a more present-day image of Delilah cutting Samson’s hair, exhibiting what Christopher Myers did in the novel.  On page 89 of A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testaments, Christopher Myers snapped a photo of a standing woman speaking to a sitting, attentive woman.  Even though illustrations in a novel typically show drawings, Christopher Myers decided to bestow his idea of Zillah talking to her mother in a photograph.  This idea that he had of taking a snapshot best portrayed the situation in the story of Zillah and Lot.  His mixture of drawings and photographs attracted my attention of how Christopher Myers desires to express his thoughts in the novel.

Personally, as a lovable human-being, I can relate to this novel because of all the love infused in the literature.  In text, I can compare this novel to Romeo and Juliet because both of these stories ultimately define love between each of the main characters.  Globally, love is the emotion we as people contain with our friends, family, spouse, etc.  Gender roles reflect some of the stories in the novel in a positive way because instead of showing the male and female discrepancies and stereotypes, the novel portrayed the power of love between males and females and how wonderful love is for them.  In the final analysis, Theodore Dreiser states how “[we should] believe in the compelling power of love… [we] do not [have to] understand it. [We should] believe it to be the most fragrant blossom of all this thorny existence.”

In conclusion, I recommend this novel to anybody and everybody, especially the people who enjoy the beautiful stories of the Bible and the stories of love.  Since this novel enhances the way I should, would, and could love, I truly assure that A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testaments is not only a charming novel, but the literature is also a virtuous lesson of how to love in life.